DAR'UL-ELHAN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO TURKISH FOLK MUSIC IN 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT

Abstract

The Daru'l-Elhan (former name of the Istanbul Conservatory) is an important art institution that was established during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey. The Daru'l-Elhan, has operated with the objectives of research and development from the date of its establishment up until the present-day. It has acquired the attribute of being the basic institution of Turkish music by providing theoretical and applied education instruction as of 1927. As of 1930, the Daru'l-Elhan has provided for the creation of the core staff of art institutions as the means of educating many researchers, academicians, performers and teachers from every generation, also including The Turkish Five, and many research studies have been produced. Whereas, in this study, the contributions, which have been neglected, to Turkish Folk Music of the Daru'l-Elhan, will be treated. As the result of the Turkism ideas, which appeared as of the 1900s in the Ottoman State, it was thought that folklore products were the most important raw material in the construction of the national identity that was desired to be formed and on this point, the first action came from the Daru'l-Elhan in the foundation of the national repertoire for the national music that would constitute the collection of the folk songs. The Daru'l-Elhan, which started its contribution with the collection of folk songs, continued in the context of performance, record recordings, recording the musical notes of folk songs, publishing the folk songs whose musical notes were recorded, giving concerts and in the establishment of the Folklore Research and Collection Committee and the Folklore Practice Group.